I must be too desperate for the validation from my family, which made me slip out of my house when it was dark enough not to be seen.
I just got the news that Maya and Mateo got engaged last night in the same banquet where my life and my bright future were snatched from me.
Like William, I was also going through a heartbreak, but still nobody cared. My family was busy comforting my brother's heartache while their daughter was falling apart.
Gradually, my pack was turning against me, and facing them in the daylight was getting harder.
Those pack members who used to stay within their limits because they were scared of my father or the pack Alpha, now had a free hand.
They were aware that after Mateo's engagement, I was alone, and nobody had gotten my back.
But I needed to do this. I needed to meet him once and ask him why he left me alone. Why did he do this to us? This wasn't what William and I deserved.
While walking to the pack house where Alpha Dorian Alaric resided, I didn't take the usual route and walked through the forest.
I wasn't in the mood to interact with anyone.
After reaching the packhouse, I found Mateo standing right outside, but he wasn't alone. Maya was with him.
Great!
They were so busy whispering something while holding hands that they didn't even notice me.
He leaned ahead and kissed her lips, which made her giggle— Just like when he used to kiss me. I felt my heart being clenched in an iron fist. They might have sensed my scent because they both seemed to go rigid.
"What are you doing here?" Maya was the first to ask me. How ironic!
When I was Mateo's girlfriend, I was never this rude to anyone. I thought people genuinely liked me.
"I'm here to talk to him," I told her softly, but my eyes stayed on the face of the guy, who was trying to avoid eye contact.
"As his mate and the Luna of the pack, I can't allow you to meet him or talk to him."
Eh? Did she bump her head on a brick?
"Maya," I chuckled, "You got engaged to him. You didn't buy him, nor you own him. Now please if you can excuse us, I really need to talk to him."
There was so much hatred evident on her face that for a minute I thought hard if she had ever been my true friend.
She was hating me as if she were the one who got rap*ed by those lunatics that night.
"Maya!" This time, Mateo stopped her from spewing anymore hate, "Just give us five minutes, baby," He said, gently cupping her cheek.
Baby?
Oh, fu*ck it!
"Why are you here, Aurora?" his eyes were wandering on my face, as if … as if he was also regretting all this.
Was there still hope?
"You know why I'm here, Mateo," I told him, trying to control my quivering lips.
No, Aurora. Don't you dare cry. He never deserved you.
Whoa! Who are you kidding? You still love him and will crawl to his lap like a puppy if you get another chance.
He inhaled a long sigh and then placed his hands in his pockets.
"Whenever I feel I can't keep my hands off you, I place my hands in my pockets," A long-gone memory stirred in my head. But I quickly pushed it away.
It was too painful to think about it.
I was here to tell him something that nobody in my family was ready to hear. Nothing happened that night. I was still a virgin.
I needed to get this off my chest. But first, I had to talk to him about William.
"Aurora," his voice pulled me back to the present, "For being a Luna, you need to be pure and worthy of the title… you…" he trailed off when he saw me shaking my head.
"I'm not here to present my case, Mateo. Not yet. I'm here because of my brother. He didn't deserve it. He was your friend, and yet you got engaged to his mate."
"Maya came to me crying," he stated, "she said that she was always in love with me and was stopping herself because of you."
Oh, brother. This was messed up. They both were messed up. How did I ever tolerate their presence in my life?
Both of them lacked basic morals. Basic decency.
Neither I nor my brother deserved this.
"William will always be my friend and my beta, Aurora. I'm sure he'll find a mate for himself. Like us, Maya and William were the chosen mates. Not the fated ones. Eventually, he will come around to it. I'm sure."
I raised my eyes to look at his face. The face I fell in love with. Right now, I felt disgusted by him and his fiancée.
"Fine!" I nodded at him and turned on my heels. He might be expecting some brutal confrontation because he called me from behind, "That's it, Aurora? No fighting? No arguing?"
A smile graced my lips that I was sure, didn't reach my eyes as I turned to look at him, "I fight for the things that are mine. You aren't. You're not worth the energy, and she's not worth the words."
He didn't seem to digest this. He walked up to me and gently held my arm, "You are angry. Right? I know you're. I … I… still love you, Aurora and I've feelings for you but for the sake of my pack I have to…" he ran his other hand through his hair in frustration and cursed under his breath, "Damn. I know, you love me and can't live without me. But this engagement is nothing but my father's wish. He is being stubborn, Aurora," he suddenly held my face, "Go home and wait for me. Okay? We'll come up with something. An Alpha is allowed to have more than one woman. Once I become the Alpha, we can be together…"
I didn't let him finish and shoved away his arms, "I don't want us to be together, Mateo," I hissed, "You? You were nothing but just a lesson. One I've already learned."
"Baby!" he tried getting closer to me, and I wanted to laugh hard. Just five minutes back, he was calling Maya by the same endearment.
"I'm not your baby, Mateo. And don't worry… Maya can have you. I don't fight over leftovers."
With that, I turned on my heels and walked away.
"Honey. Is everything alright?" I heard Maya behind me.
"Nothing, love," Mateo said in a honey glazed voice, "The pack sl*ut wanted me back."